McCulla Ireland recently announced a £3.1m investment into its biogas fleet, strengthening the firm’s sustainability credentials and propelling the firm into the future.
Amongst Ireland’s leading providers of frozen, chilled, and ambient logistics solutions, McCulla Ireland brings together the full spectrum of transportation, warehousing, and customs capabilities for clients across the UK, Ireland, and Europe. Pairing extensive industry experience with a modern fleet, professional drivers, and intricate knowledge of customs regulations, the company is perceived as a partner of choice for cold chain and international logistics solutions.
At present, McCulla maintains an expansive fleet of circa 115 lorries and 250 trailers, operating out of three strategically-placed cold store locations: Lisburn, Dublin, and Mallusk. All vehicles within the McCulla fleet are equipped with the Microlise suite of telematics and vehicle tracking technology, with continual driver training ensuring exemplary driving standards and a high degree of professionalism out on the road. With such expansive infrastructure and talent at its disposal, McCulla is able to service clients both small and large, no matter the complexity of their loads.
Throughout the course of this piece, we’ll take a closer look at McCulla Ireland’s capabilities, culture, sustainability strategy, and what allows the company to stand out in the logistics market.
Rising to the Challenge: Groupage & Customs Clearance Services
Ever since the UK’s departure from the EU back in 2020 (and to some extent, pre-dating this), it has become increasingly difficult for organisations operating across both the EU and UK markets. For both transport organisations and transport functions within international businesses, the movement of goods between the UK and EU has faced a number of boundaries, particularly in terms of customs clearance, misinformation with regard to the required documentation, and associated delays. This problem has been particularly exacerbated within the island of Ireland, with the Northern Ireland Protocol unfortunately doing very little to help the situation.
As an organisation with operations spanning NI, RoI, and GB, McCulla was undoubtedly affected by Brexit. Yet, while many organisations have struggled and faltered as a result of the emerging barriers to trade, McCulla took a very different path. Very shortly after the UK’s departure from the EU, McCulla took the decision to establish its very own, in-house customs house as a means of adapting to the emerging barriers to trade and becoming something of a lifeline for businesses that were struggling to move their goods between the two markets.
According to sources at McCulla, the immediate years following the pandemic were not easy and certainly, the evolution of its business into an outsourced customs clearance solution came with a whole host of both growing and learning pains. Yet, roll forward to 2024 and McCulla now finds itself in an incredibly envious position. With going on four years of customs expertise now under its belt, McCulla is a trusted partner for import and export clients and is able to provide an expert customs clearance service for any type of full or part load. In fact, its within those more challenging loads that McCulla’s expertise truly shines.
At present, McCulla’s customs clearance services cover: import and export declarations, safety and security declarations, customs guidance and support, trader support service entries, duty and VAT deferment, IPAFFS & TRACES entries, CDS compliance, supplementary declarations, and associated training for new clients. Notably, the company does not insist on the payment of upfront customs fees and, importantly, customs services are tightly integrated with McCulla’s broader transportation service to offer an end-to-end, hassle-free logistics solution.
Although McCulla’s customs clearance services are indeed exemplary, it’s when paired with its core transportation service that the company truly shines. Unlike many organisations in the field, McCulla is an expert in groupage solutions, thus allowing for clients to not only reduce their transport costs, but also streamline processing when crossing the Irish Sea (minimising the pressure on port infrastructure), and reduce the carbon emissions associated with their particular load. Unsurprisingly, it’s for this reason that McCulla greatly encourages a broader partnership with clients so as best to provide the full spectrum of value and truly take ownership of the service.
“Our business is roughly one third in the internal islands (within the NI and RoI), one third through the NI and RoI out to GB, and then a final third from GB back to the NI and RoI.,” detailed Michael Gray, Finance Director for McCulla Ireland. “We see ourselves as mainly crossing the Irish Sea and we specialise in groupage where we can take [for example] six pallets from company A, six pallets from company B, six pallets from company C, and six pallets from company D, put them all into a load and pop them into the North East, North West, Midlands, South East, South West, or wherever we need to go into GB.”
He added: “The customs house is what we’d consider our real point of difference. The people we have working for us in customs are second to none for any operation involving the movement of goods across the Irish Sea. We move some of the most complicated products that other hauliers struggle to move, which is why people come to McCulla and end up becoming our customers. Some products are very easy to move, while others are dire to move, but our customs house has built up a great amount of experience over the last 3 ½ years in moving those products.”
Over the years, McCulla has thoroughly proven the capabilities of its customs house, having delivered tangible value for respectable brands such as Apetito, Fastnet Fish, and many more. A number of these have also provided feedback on the expertise offered and how it has helped their business in navigating the complex nature of international trade and logistics post-Brexit.
Providing some feedback on McCulla’s customs clearance services, a spokesperson for Apetito explained: “The McCulla Customs Team have provided essential support throughout our transition into a post-Brexit export environment. What I have valued the most, is their adaptability and professionalism in dealing with a constantly evolving understanding between exporters, such as ourselves, and the Border Check Points.
“We have been able to adapt and improve our processes whilst maintaining service to our valuable Irish customers. This would not have been possible without the mediation, expertise and flexibility of the McCulla Customs Team.”
Similarly, a spokesperson for Fastnet Fish shared their own insight into the service: “I think things were a bit of a learning curve for all of us at the beginning but McCulla have been doing a great job for us. There have been instances where the team have gone the extra mile to resolve any queries from import authorities to ensure things run as smoothly as possible.
“We appreciate the work the customs input team does checking our documents to spot silly errors before the trucks arrive as this really speeds up the process. I would definitely recommend McCulla as we have been very happy with their service.”
Going forward, Michael made clear how the McCulla’s customs house will maintain a critical role in the development of new business partnerships. As the firm’s most visible differentiator in the market, McCulla will seek to improve awareness of these capabilities and use the customs house as a means of striking up new relationships and broadening the scope of services to include McCulla’s broader cold chain capabilities.
The McCulla Family: Customer Partnerships & Family Culture
Thus far, we’ve covered the technical strengths and capabilities of McCulla. While these are certainly important pillars of the business, McCulla similarly recognises the important role that its own people play in the provision of exemplary service. This is best evidenced in the great lengths to which McCulla goes in keeping its operatives happy, particularly in the case of drivers who are often on the road for rather extensive periods of time.
McCulla has a long-standing track record of investment back into its fleet, both for the purpose of ensuring a modern and compliant fleet, as well as creating a comfortable environment for its drivers. Notably, this is also an area whereupon McCulla takes on board a significant volume of driver feedback to ensure that money is well spent in directions that suit their individual needs and interests. As such, significant investments have been made into McCulla’s fleet to provide drivers with all of the comforts and amenities that make a real difference to their lives; these notably include things like comfortable beds, microwaves, efficient heaters, and more.
“When you have good people, you have to retain them. That’s the number one step. That means doing things that are important to drivers so, for example we run a very modern fleet. Over half of our fleet is less than three years old (we don’t run trucks beyond five years normally), meaning it’s new and fresh in a way that appeals to drivers,” explained Michael Gray. “We run top brands with driver appeal, and we spec them well in a way which ensures our drivers are comfortable.”
Yet, it’s not just those working within McCulla that benefit from its family-oriented culture. Even considering its clients, McCulla values the development of long-term, caring relationships in a similar vein. According to Michael, McCulla’s emphasis on long-term relationships is one that emphasises the importance of business partnerships as opposed to traditional customer and client relations. With this emphasis comes an intrinsic focus on integrating McCulla’s service into client systems and ensuring client retention with exemplary service. Thus far, the approach has paid off, with a number of McCulla’s present clientele having been with the company for 10 or more years.
As Michael clarified: “We’re very selective in the people that we work with. There are many opportunities coming to our door, but we like to consider those relationships as partnerships rather than that of a customer and supplier; it’s a relationship that we have where we want to keep those customers for the long term. We don’t tend to just jump into bed with someone when they want only one or two loads. We sit down and work with them to understand how best we can meet and exceed their expectations.”
Sustainability Strategy: £3.1m Investment into Biogas Fleet
Recognising the environmental impact of logistics operations, McCulla takes its environmental commitments very seriously as well. Operating its own energy division (Alternity Biogas Energy), McCulla has been leveraging the power of AD (Anaerobic Digester) plant to produce electricity for its cold stores ever since 2017. With the later introduction of food waste into the process and subsequent investments into its infrastructure, McCulla has taken these efforts to a whole new level with the introduction of bio-CNG manufacturing capabilities (in 2022) and the acquisition of over 30 biogas trucks (to run on bio-CNG) since 2021.
At present, McCulla is reportedly the only company in the UK and Ireland operating bio-CNG trucks using gas produced from food waste, and producing electricity via CHP to power its own carbon neutral cold stores. Already, 85% of McCulla’s Northern Ireland fleet is now powered by biogas produced on-site, which has already led to a staggering 93% reduction in carbon emissions when compared to their diesel-run counterparts.
Most recently, McCulla announced that it had secured a £3.1m investment from Lombard for the acquisition of a further 25 trucks (11 of which being powered by biogas). The investment will allow for McCulla to continue scaling up its transition to alternative, greener fuels and similarly reduce its dependency on third party fuel suppliers. Coupled with the investment is a renewed commitment from McCulla to adopt a “full circle” approach to energy production and consumption, while reducing waste to an absolute minimum across its supply chain.
Sharing further information, Michael Gray stated: “We have 30 gas trucks out on the road today, doing deliveries, collections, and all things transport. Our 31st gas truck was delivered yesterday afternoon and is currently being liveried and having telematics attached to it – that’ll be 31 working, 31 owned. That has grown massively over the last couple of years, going from zero in June, 2021, to 10 in January 2022, and the rest mostly coming over 2023.
“We’ve now completed 5m kilometres using the bio-CNG trucks, which is a landmark for us. Going forward, our target is to hit just over 3m kilometres per annum. Importantly, 5m kilometres equates to 3.9m kilograms of Co2 saved when compared to diesel.”
Future Plans & Ambitions
Over the years, McCulla has grown quite considerably as a business. However, despite the company’s impressive growth trajectory, McCulla is not an organisation to aggressively pursue growth and instead stays true to the family values and culture at its core. Growing only when it feels appropriate and, specifically in line with the needs of existing clientele, McCulla’s very selective nature regarding new client acquisition leads to a natural aversion to the rapid ramping up of workload capabilities that we see all too often.
Despite McCulla’s careful approach to commercial growth, Michael did provide some interesting insight into expansion plans that are already underway, which notably include the expansion of its existing cold store facilities. According to Michael, the decision to expand its infrastructure is a direct result of the company currently operating at nigh-on full capacity and will allow for an enhancement of services to existing clients, all while creating the opportunity to take on a select handful of new partnerships.
Providing some clarification, Michael said: “We’re actively looking at extending our cold store in Lisburn with the view that it will give us additional storage space. If you look across our three cold stores at the moment, we don’t have the capacity to take on much more than we already do; we’re pretty much full. One of the things that we’re actively looking at (and we have planning permission) is to increase our cold storage space in Lisburn so we can take in another customer or two and piggyback the transport off the back of as well.”
Transport & Logistics – Driving The Industry Forward
